A receipt proves you paid somebody. It does not prove the work met building regulations, that the guarantee is worth anything, or that the wall you removed was supposed to come out. This is what actually counts as evidence and what to capture while the work is happening.
There is a moment in most house sales where somebody asks for proof of something that happened years ago. The boiler, the wiring, the windows, the wall that is not there any more.
The honest answer is usually that the work was done, by somebody competent; and there is a receipt somewhere. The problem is that a receipt proves a payment. It does not prove the work was inspected, that it complied with anything, or that the guarantee attached to it still exists.
The difference between those two positions is worth weeks of delay and sometimes real money. What follows is what actually counts as evidence and the far easier version of collecting it, which is doing so while the work is happening.
The short version
- Planning permission and building regulations are different things and you may need one, both or neither
- Most common jobs are certified by the tradesperson's own scheme rather than by the council
- A guarantee from a company that has closed is worth nothing, which is what insurance backing is for
- Photographs taken before things are covered up are evidence nobody can reissue later
- Retrospective sign off exists, but it costs more and can require work to be opened up
- Capture it on the day; reconstructing it years later is the expensive version
Planning and building regulations are not the same thing
This trips up more people than anything else on the subject and the two get used interchangeably in conversation.
Planning permission is about whether you are allowed to change the property: its size, its appearance, its use, its effect on neighbours. Many jobs do not need it at all, because they fall under permitted development.
Building regulations are about whether the work is built properly: structure, fire safety, insulation, ventilation, drainage, electrical safety. This applies to a great deal of work that needs no planning permission whatsoever.
The practical consequence is the one people get wrong. A loft conversion or an internal wall removal may need no planning permission and still absolutely need building regulations approval. Being told you did not need planning is not the same as being told you needed nothing and a buyer's solicitor will ask about the second one.
Which certificate goes with which job
Most everyday work is signed off by the trade itself through a competent person scheme, rather than by a council inspector. The tradesperson notifies the scheme, the scheme notifies building control and you receive a certificate. If nobody notified anybody, there is nothing to find later.
| Work | What you should end up holding | Who issues it |
|---|---|---|
| Replacement windows and doors | A FENSA or CERTASS certificate | The installer's scheme |
| Electrical work | An electrical installation certificate and a building regulations compliance certificate where notifiable | The electrician's scheme |
| Gas appliance or boiler installation | A Gas Safe building regulations compliance certificate | Gas Safe Register |
| An extension or loft conversion | A building regulations completion certificate | Local authority or approved inspector |
| Removing a load bearing wall | Completion certificate, plus the structural engineer's calculations | Building control, plus the engineer |
| A new central heating system | Commissioning paperwork and the benchmark record | The installer |
| Damp proofing, timber or roofing work | The guarantee, ideally insurance backed | The contractor and its guarantee provider |
| Solar panels or a heat pump | An MCS certificate | The MCS certified installer |
The pattern worth noticing: for most of these, the certificate exists because somebody registered the job at the time. That is why this is so much easier to do on the day than in five years.
What to capture while the work is happening
This is the part that costs nothing and is worth the most, because some of it can never be recreated.
- Photographs before anything is covered up. Pipework in a wall, cabling under a floor, insulation before plasterboard, foundations before they are filled. No certificate replaces a photograph of what is behind the plaster and in ten years you will want to know where that pipe runs.
- The company's full details. Trading name, registration number, address and the name of the person who did the work. A phone number in your call history is not a way of finding a firm five years later.
- The quote and the invoice. Together they show what was agreed and what was done, which is not always the same thing.
- The certificate, the moment it arrives. These come by email weeks after the work and are the single most commonly lost item, because by then the job is finished and the email is just admin.
- Model and serial numbers of anything installed. This is what makes a warranty claim or a spare part order possible without dismantling something to read a label.
None of this takes longer than the time it takes to make the tea for the people doing the job.
If the paperwork does not exist
Sometimes you have bought a house where somebody else did the work and left nothing behind. There are still options, roughly in order of preference.
Ask the issuer. FENSA, CERTASS, Gas Safe, MCS and the local authority all hold records and will search by address, usually for a small fee. A surprising amount is recoverable this way.
Apply for regularisation. Where work needed building regulations approval and never got it, the council can inspect and issue a regularisation certificate retrospectively. It costs more than doing it properly at the time and may require opening up work so it can be seen, but it produces genuine compliance rather than a workaround.
Take out an indemnity policy. This insures the buyer and their lender against the consequences of the missing approval. It does not make the work compliant and it does not fix anything, it covers the risk. Note that applying to the council for regularisation after a policy is in place can invalidate the policy, so take your solicitor's advice before doing both.
Which of these is right depends on the work and how long ago it was done. Your conveyancer will have a firm view and it is worth getting it early rather than the week a buyer's solicitor asks.
Why this is the whole point of a logbook
Everything above shares one shape. The evidence is cheapest at the moment it is created and gets more expensive every year afterwards, until at some point it becomes impossible.
That is the argument for a digital property logbook stated as concretely as it can be. Not that a record is tidy, but that certain facts about your house are only capturable on the day and a photograph of an open floor is one of them.
It also changes what you are able to say later. "The wiring was done in 2021" is a claim. The certificate, the electrician's registration number and a photograph of the consumer unit are evidence. When somebody is deciding whether to hand over several hundred thousand pounds, the difference between those matters more than it does at any other point in owning a home.
Capture it while it is still capturable
homehogs keeps the certificate, the photographs and the contractor against the job itself, so the evidence is filed on the day rather than hunted for years later.
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